The Ivory Coast are expected to call up both men, as well as City fringe player Abdul Razak, for the tournament which takes place in South Africa from January 19 to February 10.

“If we lost Yaya and Kolo and maybe Abdul — who has not played a lot of games here, but maybe in January could be important — if we have two or three players injured and we don’t have other players, I hope that they don’t go to this competition,” said Mancini.

“We talk and we need to talk more with their (international) manager, but it is difficult.”